The XR Week Peek (2026.05.18): Meta announces Connect, Samsung may unveil its glasses in July, and more!
Top news of the week
Meta announces Meta Connect and teases news about glasses
Meta’s annual Connect event is set to return on September 23–24. It will be about “the latest in VR, wearables, metaverse, and AI.” Which tells us nothing new since these were the topics of at least the last three Meta Connects. The important thing is to understand which of these topics will be a priority and which will have a hardware launch. Anyway, it’s good that Meta mentioned again “VR” and “metaverse”: it means it has not abandoned these topics.
Since Zuck always likes to show off, he shared a picture of himself handling some glasses, with the important parts of the picture being censored out. It’s interesting to notice that in the picture there are some Ray-Ban-Meta-like smart glasses on the table, but then Zuck is handling some glasses with very thick frames. I think it’s improbable these are just smartglasses (they seem too big for that), so either this is a tease of the Puffin headset (but the device in his hands looks too small for that), or this is a tease of some upcoming AR glasses, like an update on Orion.
I guess we’ll see next September: I’m very curious to discover what Meta has to announce about glasses. And I really hope to be invited to Meta Connect again, so that I can inform you about everything that happened there (and I can eat the tons of free food they have there…)
Other relevant news
Samsung may unveil its smartglasses in July
According to a Korean magazine, we may have a full reveal of the upcoming Samsung smartglasses at a Galaxy Unpacked event in London on July 22nd. This would make a lot of sense: while all the eyes are pointed at Google I/O, it’s very hard for Samsung to let a partner launch its hardware. I may expect more details about Android XR for glasses at Google I/O, but not a reveal of Samsung glasses.
The glasses should be made in collaboration with eyewear design company Gentle Monster and are expected to launch in Q3 of this year.
Meta releases SDK for Meta Ray-Ban Display
Meta has finally updated its Meta Wearables Device Access Toolkit to add support for the display of the Meta Ray-Ban Display and its neural wearable band. This means that finally, developers can build applications that leverage the display of the most powerful Meta smartglasses and the interaction mechanics of the innovative EMG band (hence the hand microgestures).
But there is more: it is now also possible to build just web apps for the Ray-Ban Meta Display. Developers can start from a starter kit and create mini websites that leverage orientation data, phone GPS, input from the Meta Neural Band, and local storage. With just simple modifications, every website can become compatible with the interface of Ray-Ban Meta, provided that it can work on a very small screen.
This last way of creating apps is huge because there are many web developers out there. And in fact, after its announcement, we already had videos of influencers playing chess, Tetris, and, of course, DOOM on the glasses. A member of our community, Timur Abdrakhimov, has also created a website dedicated to collecting all the web apps that work on Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses. Imagine it like a new SideQuest, but for glasses.
Let’s see what the community will be able to create with these tools…
More info (SDK for Ray-Ban Meta Display announced)
More info (Doom on Meta glasses)
More info (Reddit on Meta Glasses)
More info (Tetris on Meta Glasses)
More info (The “SideQuest” of Meta Glasses)
Now Mark Gurman says Vision Pro is not dead anymore
After the backlash of the Apple Vision Pro community, Mark Gurman revised its statement about the Vision Pro being dead. Now his version seems more realistic to me:
- He reiterated that Apple disinvested from Vision Pro and various people from that team have been moved to other teams (e.g. Siri or glasses)
- He acknowledged that many people are being hired for the Vision Pro group, but he says most of the hires are for the VisionOS runtime, which should power both the headsets and the glasses
- He confirms that Glasses are the top priority of the company now
- He admitted that Apple is keeping working in the background on new technology that could enable smaller and more lightweight headsets, but he said that currently, no new headset is on the horizon. If a new Vision Pro is going to be released, it will be at least 2 years from now.
So Vision Pro is not dead, but let’s say that hardware-wise it’s paused, while the software is still in development. Priority is now on smartglasses. This doesn’t surprise me, because it seems to be the strategy that more or less everyone is having now.
Investor Wu Xu added his point of view about the story: he says that according to his sources, Apple is currently developing a headset similar to Meta’s Puffin, and at the end of this year, the team will evaluate if continuing pursuing the current Vision Air strategy, or if going for the more aggressive direction of Meta Puffin.
More info (Mark Gurman’s new view on Vision Pro / 1)
More info (Mark Gurman’s new view on Vision Pro / 2)
More info (Xu Wu’s point of view)
News worth a mention
XREAL ROG glasses are now available
ASUS Republic of Gamers (ROG) and XREAL today announced that pre-orders are open for ROG XREAL R1, the glasses that can connect to USB-C handhelds and mobile devices, or PCs and consoles (via its external ‘ROG Control Dock’) to play games. The glasses got a lot of attention because of their specs: 240Hz or refresh rate (which is huge), 57° FOV (definitely not bad for AR glasses), 700 nits, and 3ms motion-to-photon latency.
Pre-orders in the US via Best Buy, priced at $850. Global pre-orders direct from Xreal are expected to go live on May 17th. $850 is not cheap, so I guess this is going to get the interest of mostly hardcore gamers.
Steam Frame is still launching “soon”
Every week, there are signs that Steam Frame and Steam Machine’s launch is getting closer and closer. This week, we had the Steam Frame listed on the Qualcomm website, and Valve fixing some number formatting for Europe on its website. In the meantime, the community keeps guessing the price of these devices and some people are hoping that Valve may sell below cost.
More info (Steam Frame on Qualcomm website)
More info (Valve fixing numbers for European people on its website)
More info (Some people believe Steam Machine will be below $550)
The work on the opensource headset goes on
Walker Industries has published on Reddit an update for the project of the mid-range open-source headset, which should cost around $800. In the update, it is possible to see a new board, the eye tracking module working, SLAM that is work-in-progress, and a new design. This is a very interesting project, and I can’t wait to see what headset it will be able to deliver and in what time…
The Quest runtime can now convert web photos into 3D
Meta published the latest version of the Quest runtime PTC, and there are some interesting updates in it. First of all, there are some UX improvements, and now, it is finally possible to access the menu to turn off the headset from the main UI of the device. But the most important piece of news is that Quest can now automatically convert the photos that you can find on websites into 3D photos.
Is Samsung working on a “Galaxy Air”?
VR Panda, which sometimes publishes leaks on VR headsets, has published some leaked schematics of what looks like a sort of Vive Flow in development at Samsung. So it may be that Samsung is working on a lightweight headset, a “Galaxy Air”, but there is no official confirmation about it.
iVRy lets you play SteamVR on the Vision Pro
iVRy has released a solution that lets you play SteamVR games with a PC and an Apple Vision Pro. It is comprised of a thin client for the Vision Pro and a driver for SteamVR, so the Vision Pro can now wirelessly connect as a SteamVR headset. And iVRy is pretty cool because it is not a solution working only with Vision Pro, but many other headsets.
More info (iVRy for Apple Vision Pro)
More info (iVRy as a cross-platform solution)
VR games go flatscreen
We’re starting to see a trend where VR games are going to go flatscreen. Moss is getting a flatscreen port after the cancellation of a new big project for Polyarc. And the developer of Five Nights At Freddie’s revealed that the latest game was launched on flatscreen first because, as a VR game only, it wouldn’t have been economically sustainable. It seems that more and more game developers are going for flatscreen support to increase their chances of revenue.
More info (Moss is getting a flatscreen edition)
More info (FNAF wouldn’t be sustainable as a VR-only game)
Some news about content
- Subnautica 2 won’t be available in VR. You can’t still play it in VR thanks to the Praydog’s universal VR mod, but currently, the result is pretty bad
- A location-based VR experience about Blade Runner is in the works and will be distributed Next Year
- Simcade VR racer Downtown Club is leaving Early Access and releasing in full on both Meta Quest and Pico on June 11
- Sky Legends: An Aeropostal Epic has gone gold and will release for Quest 3 today, May 18th
More info (Subnautica 2 won’t support VR)
More info (Subnautica 2 works with the universal Mod)
More info (LBVR version of Blade Runner is coming)
More info (Downtown Club)
More info (Sky Legends: An Aeropostal Epic)
Some reviews about content
- One More Delve is a promising hack-and-slash dungeon crawler, but it needs to solve some bugs during this Early Access phase
- Outside The Lines is a relaxing coloring app
- Crepe Master is a quick and silly action VR game for kids
- Among Giants is an unforgiving exploration-action game. It can be frustrating if you don’t like the genre; otherwise, you find it awesome.
More info (One More Delve)
More info (Outside The Lines)
More info (Crepe Master)
More info (Among Giants)
Other news
OpenXR OSX, the unofficial OpenXR runtime for OSX is now available on GitHub!
The genius Lucas Martinic has created another mindblowing MR demo
Niantic Spatial has updated its optimized file format for Gaussian Splats
An interesting article that explains well why many XR pilots do not become actual new production processes inside companies
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Some XR fun
The Steam Frame is always coming “soon”
Funny link
Thanks ChatGPT for this unbiased suggestion
Funny link
The future is now, old man. But it is also a bit weird, old man…
Funny link
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